Lady Gaga recently introduced a Haus Laboratories Makeup line and as part of a publicity blitz she invited a gay aspiring cosmetologist and superfan to a session with her makeup artist Sarah Tanno. What Brandon Galaz didn’t know was that Gaga was in the next room.

And the surprise is a tearjerking success after Galaz pulls out a letter he wrote to his idol and gets to read it to her in person.

Says Galaz to the singer “You’re my role model. I am unsure if I’d have the courage to accept and be who I am today without the acceptance and peace I have found in your music and life story.”

She later returns to tell him, “I just want to say that letter that you wrote is why I do what I do. Thank you for sharing that. It’s so vulnerable, so honest, so real. That’s not easy, what you did. You just changed a lot of people’s lives. When they see this, they’ll be less afraid.”